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Macrobrachium faustinum male
Macrobrachium faustinum female
Macrobrachium faustinum is a very widely spread Longarm Shrimp from the Caribbean. It occurs on almost every island in rivers and creeks with rocky bottoms. The rocks provide it with hiding places from where it goes on excursions for food. This species occurs both in freshwater and brackish water and I have found both adults and juveniles of all stages in a small creek only a 100 meters away from the sea. In captivity, the females carry eggs constantly in 2 week intervals. Several hundred larvae hatch that need to be transferred into high salinity brackish water or saltwater and fed planktonic food to survive. The males have one very large claw along with a "normal size" one, which makes them superficially look similar in look to some of the Asian Macrobrachium species such as the "Chameleon Shrimp", which is sometimes offered commercially. However, they are are not closely related. This shrimp is not commercially available anywhere as far as I know. Copyright © Petshrimp.com |